Golden Globe Awards Draw Largest Audience in 10 Years

NBC telecast averages nearly 21 million viewers

The Golden Globe Awards telecast on NBC continued its ratings momentum Sunday as the telecast drew its largest audience in 10 years and its largest young-adult audience in seven years.

According to Nielsen data, the “71st Annual Golden Globe Awards,” hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler for a second straight year, averaged a 6.5 rating in adults 18-49 and 20.9 million viewers overall — up by 2% and 6%, respectively, from last year (6.4 and 19.7 million).

This is the best demo score for the show since 2007 and matches a 10-year high (since a 9.9 in 2004). In total viewers, it’s the biggest crowd since the 2004 show drew 26.8 million.

Versus two years ago, Sunday’s telecast was up a big 30% in 18-49 (6.5 vs. 5.0) and by 24% in total viewers (20.9 million vs. 16.8 million).

NBC Research estimates a total of 44.2 million people watched all or some of this year’s “Golden Globes” telecast, up from the year-ago 38.6 million and the highest for the event in 10 years (50.1 million in 2004).

“The Golden Globe Awards” rank as the No. 1 awards program for the season in both 18-49 and total viewers, ahead of CBS’ “Emmy Awards” and ABC’s “CMA Awards” and “American Music Awards.” It’s the top-scoring kudocast since the Oscars on ABC last February.

Leading up to Sunday’s awards show, NBC’s “Golden Globes Red Carpet Special 2014″ averaged a 5.5 household rating/8 share in Nielsen’s metered-market overnights, up 15% from 2013 (4.8/7) for a five-year high.

Over at E!, its “Live From the Red Carpet” averaged 2.2 million viewers, a 10-year high. The only times the cabler has drawn a larger pre-Globes audience came in 2002 and 2004 (2.4 million both times).

Looking at the preliminary data for other nets, CBS dominated early with the conclusion of its NFL Divisional Round playoff game between the Denver Broncos and San Diego Chargers, which did a big 25.1 household rating/42 share in Nielsen’s metered markets (peaking with a 47.5/41 from 7:30 to 8). This is the second highest-rated Sunday AFC Divisional Playoff game in 18 years (26.1/41 for Indianapolis-Kansas City on NBC in 1996).

Following football, “60 Minutes” averaged roughly a 4.2/10 in 18-49 and 17 million viewers overall in the 8 o’clock hour — the show’s best numbers in more than a year. The newsmagazine’s segments included an interview with Anthony Bosch, Major League Baseball’s chief witness in the doping case against the New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez.

Also above average closing out the night for CBS were “The Good Wife” (1.8/4 in 18-49, 9.8 million viewers overall) and “The Mentalist” (1.7/4 in 18-49, 9.4 million viewers overall), with the former logging its best 18-49 score in about a year and moving back ahead of timeslot rival “Revenge” on ABC.

Fox had a solid night even opposite the Globes with original episodes of animated comedies “The Simpsons” (2.2/5 in 18-49, 4.7 million viewers overall), “Bob’s Burgers” (1.9/5 in 18-49, 4.0 million viewers overall), “Family Guy” (2.6/6 in 18-49, 5.1 million viewers overall) and “American Dad” (2.2/5 in 18-49, 4.3 million viewers overall).

At ABC, a repeat of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” (1.0/3 in 18-49, 5.1 million viewers overall) and the low-rated special “The Bachelor: Behind the Scenes” (0.9/2 in 18-49, 3.3 million viewers overall) were followed by original episode of “Revenge” (1.6/4 in 18-49, 5.7 million viewers overall) and “Betrayal” (0.8/2 in 18-49, 2.8 million viewers overall). “Revenge” was down from the previous week’s 1.8 but still above its November-December average, while “Betrayal” edged up one week from its finale.

The ratings are up for one reason and one reason alone – Tina Fea and Amy Poehler. Two very talented comedic alums of SNL who are very successful apart but even better together. As soon as they don’t host this show anymore, all those gains will evaporate – nearly guaranteed.

I am not surprised to read this, it was a very well put together show and great duo. They are both very funny women and compliment each other well. Each have a great sense of comic timing and deliver excellent jokes. Hopefully future shows will continue to capitalize on their success.